Received offers from all three MBB firms and don't know what to do
Hey guys! Recently, I found out that I received 2023 internship offers from all three MBB firms, and I couldn't be happier. This recruitment process has been great, and all of my interviews went smoothly and I felt confident about the result following each one. I participated in diversity programs for a few of them, so the timeline of my recruitment was a bit different. The past few months have been extremely stressful yet rewarding, and although I go to a target school, I am a FGLI student and it feels as if all of the hard work in my life is finally coming to fruition.
The fruits of my labor are showing, and I am extremely proud of myself. That being said, I now have a very big decision to make. All three of my offers are for the same location (I have not gotten specifics for Bain yet, but I'm 90% sure), so that is not a factor in my decision. I am also wary of the recent comp increase for undergraduate hires (I believe 112k for Bain & McK, and 110k for BCG), but this is also not factoring into my decision (also, I find it funny and kinda petty that Bain & McK really one-upped BCG like that following their initial comp increase). Here are my thoughts on each of them:
Bain:
At the beginning of the recruitment process, I got the sense that this was probably the best cultural fit for me. Objectively, my experience has been extremely positive here, and I have essentially liked everyone that I've met so far. The minority affinity group that I would be apart of as well is also particularly strong at the office I would be joining, and my experience with them has made me realize how important it is to have a strong network of people that look like you and want to support you. I am also aware of how strong their private equity practice is, however I am definitely not a PE junkie and don't know if I'd particularly want to exit into PE after consulting. Sometimes I wish I was more into PE so that this decision would be easier for me, but I just don't care about it as much so this is a nice benefit, but not a game changer by any means. However, I just get the feeling that if I chose Bain, I would have the most regret or FOMO out of my three options.
BCG:
This was the first offer I received, and for the last couple of months I've definitely developed a preference for them. Everyone I've talked to has really made me feel wanted, and before the other offers, I was really content with potentially ending up here. However, there was a recent instance in which I met a few people at the office I received an offer from that I just really didn't vibe with, and this was the first time in which things just felt awkward. All of my other experiences have been positive ones though, and although I was initially thrown off by this instance, I have since chilled out on it and am not going to overblow this at all, but it did make me take a step back. I also feel as if I just know a lot more about the firm compared to the others just due to the sheer number of interactions I was able to have.
McKinsey:
This one is interesting. I recruited for this one normally, so I have not had as many interactions with people from the firm compared to the other two. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that this gives McK more unknowns to me. After receiving the offer, I will fully take the opportunity to talk to as many people as I can to get a sense of culture and vibes. Throughout recruitment, despite my preferences, I always had this lurking thought in the back of my mind that if I received a McKinsey offer, was I going to look at it and say no to it? I am trying to set perceived prestige aside, but there's no denying that I haven't thought about that and the stereotypes surrounding it that are so prevalent in these circles in college.
Even though I am bound to make friends in any of these places, I am worried about the stereotypes about the McK culture being more cutthroat, more formal, more competitive, and less fun than the other two, which is why I want to do as much due diligence as I can to talk to people before making a decision. Also, one other thing that I'm thinking about is that if I like it enough, I may want to stay in consulting longer-term, and for some reason doing that at McK just feels harder and maybe even less likely to me compared to the other two.
Throughout my life, when it comes to choices, I feel like I've quite often made the head over heart decision and taken the best possible option for myself (at least on paper), and this time around, I was honestly thinking I could finally make the heart decision. However, since I have always made the decision to do the best possible for myself, the other part of me is thinking why would I stop now? I have truly worked so hard to be in this position and decided to continue to interview even after I received a great offer, and so would me doing all of this be in vain if I didn't choose this? I am also intrigued by the challenge of it all, and feel that maybe I should go this route to at least give myself the satisfaction of saying that I tried, and to signal to myself and others that I am fully capable and deserving to do this, and maybe even flex a bit.
Overall, I think I'm leaning BCG or McKinsey, and I just feel like I would have the most amount of regret if I chose Bain. Among these two though, it's tough. Like I said before, I can see myself staying long term at BCG more than I could at McKinsey, but I am drawn to the challenge and potentially greater opportunities (which may honestly be a ~1% difference, if even that) that McK provides. Even taking prestige out of the equation, McK undoubtedly has the largest network being the oldest of the three, and since I have no idea at all what industry I would potentially be interested in, this larger network would just generally be helpful if I did want to exit.
My ultimate goal in my career however is to own my own business, so I guess I would prefer to go to the best place that helps foster that. In general, I want to go to the best place that maximizes and leaves all of these doors open (staying, exiting, starting my own business) the longest. One thing that I realized as well is that this is still just an internship, and so there's no guarantee that I would have to re-sign for full-time at the place I choose.
What I'm thinking of right now is potentially interning at McK to at least give myself peace of mind that I tried it and challenged myself, and then evaluating everything afterward to see if this is really somewhere I would want to work full-time. I was at first thinking that there was no shot I'd re-recruit next year if I got one of these offers, but I'm honestly prepared to do so if absolutely necessary if I truly don't think I'm in the right place. The process for me was so smooth and I'm extremely confident in my behavioral and casing abilities, so I truly think I could do it again if I really wanted to. The only thing is that I have certainly made connections at BCG, and I would just feel bad for not accepting them. However, I ultimately know that I have to make the right decision for myself at the end of the day.
Sorry for writing so much, but I think this did me some good to be able to vent. This is certainly a great problem to have and I am so blessed to be in this situation. I want to open this up to you guys though. What do you think I should do? Are there really any differences in the exit opportunities between these firms, and is there a difference to how sustainable or possible it is to rise up the ranks at these places? Is one place better for someone considering entrepreneurship? Are the stereotypes regarding culture valid at all, i.e. McK being a cutthroat, more formal place where you can't have fun?
Finally, is my thought to do my internship at McKinsey and seeing how I feel about it a reasonable one, and how common/possible is it for people to make that internship to full-time lateral MBB transition? Open to ideas from anyone, especially those who were in a similar situation, have experiences with multiple of these firms/potentially transitioned between two of them, and those who rose up the ranks and stayed longer-term in consulting at one of these places. Please let me know what you guys think, and thanks in advance. For now, I'll celebrate!
McK
Ok intern. Thanks for the clarification
Congrats on the offers!
I’d go with BCG.
I haven’t heard great things about MCK culture. This will vary a lot by office and group, so it’s not something you can really predict beforehand, but anecdotally it seems that you are more likely to encounter aggressive personalities at MCK.
Also, I feel like MCK’s reputation for questionable ethics during engagements has reached new levels. Probably the most ‘evil’ corporation in the eyes of the media the past couple of years. I feel like most people on WSO would tell you not to factor that in, and if MCK was your only MBB offer I would say you should take it. But I don’t see why you would want to work for a place that will cause some to reflexively associate you with unethical / greedy corporate behavior, when you can work for another company (BCG or Bain) that has the same positives in terms of reputation and experience while carrying much less stigma.
My best advice is to be careful not to hurt your arm jerking yourself off.
First of all, congratulations! Getting offers from all three firms is a feat. in itself!
With regards to where to go, that really depends on you; my advice is to ignore the noise and go with where you feel you fit best all around (cultural, interest in work/role, etc.). You can always jump between MBBs later on and it's not as if your connections will outright disappear if you choose one firm over the other.
I'd say you're thinking too far into the future. Long-term viability is like planning a flight that will never take off, you never know what will happen. No one predicted the world would come to a halt in 2020 due to COVID, no one predicted any number of factors that lead them to differing career paths across their ~5-10 years.
All this to say: don't complicate the simple. Any of these firms is great to be at, choose the one you fit best with and call it a day.
Take McKinsey. You can’t feel regret if you go with the best.
After about 5 minutes working, the 0.0001% prestige uplift you may think McKinsey has over the others will be quickly forgotten, and you'll instead be concerned with how much you actually like the people with whom you work. Choose based on fit and don't look back.
I see a lot of worries that I had similar to you when I was going into McKinsey, but my perspective is as someone that only got a McKinsey internship offer and nothing else, so take that with a grain of salt - I don't know what the day-to-day looks like at other firms and I probably never will as I decided to not re-recruit for full time cycles. As always also, my n = 1 and like you said you're in an absolutely incredible position - there's no objectively wrong choice and it depends on what you're solving for.
In terms of a cultural issue, I thought that everyone I worked with at McKinsey was very committed to your success and was "on the same team" so to speak. I was also deeply worried about the work feeling cutthroat or unsustainable when I first started, but I found out that even the work is obviously a lot (you don't go into consulting for the lifestyle), the people made it a lot of fun and the team events were a blast. Like with any large firm, you'll find people who are bad and who are good, but as long as you make true connections, I firmly believe that you will find incredibly warm, welcoming people from all across the spectrum of personalities and backgrounds at McKinsey.
Now lets get into some of the reasons I think actually matter and would potentially go into your considerations. Again, this is from my perspective and also contains a bit of secondhand information and observations as well - take them or leave them and if you do take them, do so with a heaping boxful of salt:
Travel: When McKinsey says 'global' staffing, they don't always meaning 'global' staffing for everyone. From a logistical standpoint it just doesn't always make sense - it's simply a lot easier to staff a Japanese BA for a study in Tokyo as opposed to flying someone across the pacific every other week to get the work done. If you're high performing or apply for programs like 6MA (6 months abroad) there are opportunities for you to drive the staffing in certain directions, provided you have sufficient backing. However, there are functional differences still when it comes to level and breadth of travel. McKinsey NA considers the continent broadly to be 'one office,' meaning it's very easy to get yourself staffed far and wide, coast to coast. I had co-interns who were flying cross country every week, while I stayed slightly more local with just one cross-coast flight. BCG as far as I can tell staffs more regionally (broken down into West coast, Great Lakes, South, and Northeast regions) with higher-performing associates able to push more for those cross-country projects and staffings. If your goal is to travel coast to coast (say you want to live in one region but go to another in order to remain in contact with friends, which is something I really solved for) it's a lot easier at McKinsey as far as I can tell. However if the majority of your friend group or people you'd like to see are concentrated in one area, this becomes less relevant.
Staffing: The staffing you're going to get at McKinsey is going to be a lot more self-driven once you hit, say, the second year of your full-time job (or even sooner if you desire it). The staffing market at McKinsey works in a way where if you have projects you like and people who would staff you on those projects after speaking with them, you can push to be on those projects fairly easily and with little hassle - the system enables it. At the same time, you can also sit back and take a "random walk" so to speak where your staffing manager (PDM, in this case) helps you find a wide variety of projects across a whole gamut of industries in order to let you find what you like. I can't speak to staffing as much at BCG - someone else can chime in - but Bain staffing tends to be more directive and centralized from what I've seen and heard. Overall, for people who know what they like to do and aren't afraid to rock the boat and push a little for it, McKinsey is great for that. However, I think the likelihood of 'falling through the cracks' if you don't find good sponsors or backers is higher at McKinsey and BCG than at Bain - it's simply a function of the culture and how the system works.
Sustainability: This is the last thing I'll talk about for now since there's a lot one can get into, but if you're heavily solving for sustainability of lifestyle (at least, whatever sustainability there is in consulting) then my two cents would be Bain has a slight edge out on this one. At Bain, the hours you're going to be working are on average a bit less (say more in the realms of 50-60 as opposed to 55-65 a week) and the culture/staffing model means that you're going to both be traveling less and that travel you do undertake is going to be shorter distance. McKinsey is the kind of firm that will take essentially whatever you don't nail down. Thankfully, you can nail down quite a lot at McKinsey without people batting an eye (they aren't psychos) but you have to be very upfront with the kind of boundaries you set and just remain mindful of when time usage is important and when it isn't. Which comes with experience - I personally am far from even good at it yet.
I'll give one last note though that I think I've observed - same caveats apply - I think the differences between Bain and BCG/McKinsey are much, much greater than the differences between BCG and McKinsey. BCG does a great job when it comes to marketing themselves against McKinsey from an outsider's point of view by pointing towards culture and better perks, but there's a reason why they put those on the table. You'll find the classic comparison of "several flavors of kool-aid" to be much more apt when comparing green versus blue flavored kool-aid than versus red. All this is to say that, truly optimize for the people you want to work with, not any perceived feelings of prestige or network improvements over the other.
Def Mck or bain. This is an internship offer, so I wouldn't weigh as heavily into culture or fit, contrary to what some people say, because you could very easily get into another MBB for FT (ESPECIALLY considering you got an offer to all 3, so any one of them that you would apply for full time would already have in their system that you just got an offer there a year ago :). On top of that, you’re clearly amazing at interviewing, and if you’re diversity, you’ll have a lock to any of the three for FT.
Basically, McK offers the most prestige and network by far. I know people will say "it doesn't matter between the three." While some may say it may not matter as much, Mck has the biggest network/brand name in the world, period (argument can be made for GS as well). But More than HBS even. Certainly more than bain/BCG. That can certainly matter.You have Mck alumni everywhere. You can go anywhere after Mck. At my top HYPSM, Mck gives out considerably less offers than bain/BCG, and the candidates who get offers there are MARKEDLY better than the ones that get only bain/BCG. Yes, Mck may be more cutthroat (depends on location)- but it's a 10 week internship, and secondly, business is cutthroat. In all three of these firms, you will be expected to bend over backward for clients- you are at the highest tier of business. Get used to cutthroat, because you are competing against other consulting firms to win business. If you're scared of cutthroat/professionalism, don't enter consulting. As you rise up, everything - from recruiting to other jobs, to getting business to becoming a partner- is severely cutthroat.
Secondly, bain offers the best PE/finance exit opps. While you're not a PE junkie right now, your mind can easily change (it did for me). Bain gives you the opportunity to get into PE/finance if you want to later on, while also offering the EXACT same non PE exit opps that a BCG would.
Moving on to BCG; BCG has no competitive advantage over bain and Mck. And worst case, if you go to bain or Mck internship and for some reason hate it, you can always go to BCG for FT - however, if you absolutely hate the internship at Mck/bain, that might mean that consulting is not for you, and less of that specific firm is not for you (as contrary to what you think, your internship exp will be very similar at all three). Simple put, there is zero benefit to BCG internship - you would be giving up the immense prestige/network of Mck, and the PE/finance opps of Bain for no additional exit opps or network.
TLDR: for an internship, don't choose based on your extremely limited knowledge of their carefully marketed "culture". Choose based on prestige, network, and exit opps. Mck has best network/prestige in world, bain has best PE/finance exit opps, and BCG has no advantage over the other 2 (worse prestige/network than mck, and worst PE/finance exit opps by far compared to other 2.) nothing to lose by going to mck and bain, and many things to lose by going BCG.
Yeah, I would totally believe an intern’s take lol. If you’ve actually interned at at least one of the MBBs, you’ve still only spent a few weeks at one of them. To say what you’re saying with such confidence about all of them, you either need to have been in the industry a long time or you just have the audacity.
You do realize that what I said is widely know throughout the industry. I said that mckinsey is the most prestigious out of the MBBs - that is widely known. And I said Bain is know for their PE practice - that is also widely known. Just because I did internships doesn't change that fact.You obviously work at BCG so you're obviously pressed because your ego might be hurt which is why you replied to my comment - and yes, I scrolled down and confirmed that you do. BCG is a great place to work, don't get me wrong - but doesn't change the two points I made (mck most prestigious and bain known for PE). Let me know which one of those two points you think are inaccurate - and no, I don't need to have audacity or have worked in the industry for many years to make those two widely known points. The fact thing that you didn’t explicitly say which one of my two points was wrong or what competitive advantage BCG offers over Mckinsey and instead attacked my background kind of violates the premise of consulting - being data driven.
McK. From what I have seen, you will always have a chip on your shoulder working at BCG or Bain.
Lmao hi McK analyst
Lol I've exited into a MF PE, you a Bain/BCG intern?
Hey there dude/dudette,
If the small affinity group at Bain you're talking about is 1GEN, then DM me. I started it.
But if you don't want to DM, then I'll give my 2 cents:
1) You can't go wrong.
2) Bainies love Bain in the same way that Soviets loved the Soviet Union. You either loved it or were dropped out of a helicopter. I got a bit of both during my time at Bain.
3) If it's the southern BCG system, run far away and DO NOT accept your offer. BCG Dallas is the only place I've heard of an Associate jumping off the building.
4) You don't have to be a PE junkie at Bain. I was there 2 years and only spent 1 week on a PE diligence. I landed in PE, ironically, but you don't have to do PEG if you don't want to.
5) If I knew then what I knew now, I probably would have picked McKinsey.
It's overblown in this forum that Bain is the best to get into PE. Realistically, McKinsey people have just as good a chance of getting in--I have McKinsey friends that went to top MF friendly PE funds just like Bainies, and it wasn't like they were grinding like crazy to do so, it was the same process as my Bain friends. Don't let the prestige whores tell you otherwise.
Bain was great and all, but McKinsey inherently has more people that think differently from each other and the ability to network to the cases that you want, whereas at Bain once you got your rating/how you were seen, that's how you were treated--Bain was very sticky. Also, Bain lagged behind on everything in regards to competing with BCG and McKinsey, including comp, industry expertise, etc.
Also, COVID at Bain removed all the good parts they talk about in recruiting: culture was stripped away, hours got longer, and like half the class was pulled into PEG when they didn't want to be. It was brutal, and they didn't manage it well at all. I remember we had a partner presentation where one of the partners who was KNOWN for being down to earth/ACs loved was asked how he was handling COVID, and he chatted for like 5inutes on how awesome it was because now he was getting done before 5 and being at home, tone-deaf to the fact that our AC's class NPS had dropped to record lows, like, 10 year lows. From what I understand, McKinsey was rough during COVID as well, but the fall wasn't as sharp.
I'm a recent addition to BCG and it's been great so far. I've had immense support at every level before and after joining, letting me focus on my job knowing everything else will be taken care of. The range of projects is interesting and there's a very regional model to staffing. I have less leverage here as a new hire, but that's because the talent team wants me to join projects where I can be developed. I can and do get in touch with case teams that staff projects I'm really interested. The differences between the MBBs are minor, especially McK and BCG are more similar than different. You can't go wrong with either choice, so take some time off to celebrate and choose the people and company you vibe the most with. Feel free to DM me if you want to chat about BCG. Congratulations and good luck!